Does Financial Development Promote Innovation in Developing Economies? An Empirical Analysis

Using firm‐level data from 2006 to 2013 for a set of developing countries, we examine the effects of financial development on innovation. Financial development boosts innovation by improving resource allocation and investment in strategic sectors as well as facilitating technology to promote growth. Using binary response models and instrumental variable techniques to correct for endogeneity, we find robust but puzzling results. Contrary to most of the existing literature, financial development has a negative effect on the probability of a firm to innovate in developing countries. This effect is conditional on firm size, and only larger firms benefit from financial development. These results are robust to different measures of financial development and econometric specifications. We argue that this is a result of the design of the financial system in regard to the lack of capital and institutional system. Consequently, developing countries should first generate appropriate institutional conditions if they want financial development to spur growth through innovation.     

Economic Value of the Carbon Sink Services of Tropical Secondary Forests and Its Management Implications

This paper explores the economic feasibility of secondary forest regeneration and conservation as an alternative in the campaign addressing the problem of global warming. Detailed measurements of tropical secondary forests over time, in different ecological zones of Costa Rica, are used to evaluate carbon storage models. The paper addresses key issues in the international discussion about cross- and within-country compensation for carbon storage services and illustrates a method to compute/predict their economic value over time under a variety of scenarios. The procedure is applicable to other developing countries where secondary forest growth is increasingly important.     

Rent seekers in the U.S. international trade commission escape clause investigations

This article addresses the question of the political and economic characteristics of firms that are active in filing escape clause petitions. Filing an escape clause petition is considered to be a part of a political rent seeking strategy of a firm. The sample consists of publicly traded firms in industries in which escape clause petitions were filed 1975–1986. The results of a logit analysis suggest that firms active in the petitioning process tend to be profitable and dependent on the petitioned product. We also find tentative support that these firms are in concentrated industries and have Washington offices. These results raise some questions about the utility of the escape clause in providing aid for those firms that it is intended to help.     

Die Chemo entspannter erleben

Progressive Muskelrelaxation bei Chemotherapie - übelkeit und Erbrechen z?hlen zu den unangenehmen Nebenwirkungen einer Chemotherapie. Eine neue Studie untersuchte daher den Effekt einer Einzelschulung in Progressiver Muskelentspannung einschlie?lich Beratung bei betroffenen Krebspatienten.     

Sicherer Umgang mit Betäubungsmitteln

Ambulante Pflegedienste betreuen h?ufig auch Patienten, die einer intensiven Schmerztherapie bedürfen. Viele von ihnen werden dabei mit Medikamenten versorgt, die unter das Bet?ubungsmittelgesetz fallen. Für die Pflegedienste hei?t das: Die Dokumentation muss hier besonderen Anforderungen genügen.     

Conservation capital and sustainable economic growth

An endogenous growth model, which links pollution to ineffectiveinput-use, is developed to examine the potential for achievingbalanced growth while preserving the environment through investmentin conservation capital. We derive conditions under which individualpreferences for environmental quality and private incentivesfor investment in conservation capital can lead to non-decreasingenvironmental quality with balanced growth even in the absenceof environmental regulations. Additionally, conditions underwhich investment in conservation capital can enable an environmentallyregulated economy to achieve a higher rate of sustainable balancedgrowth than otherwise are analysed.     

The globalisation of research in the pharmaceutical industry: A case of uneven development

The paper discusses different conceptualisations of the term globalisation of research. From this discussion five dimensions of globalisation of research are identified. Using three different type of data, the paper goes on to examine the extent, motivations and mechanism for the globalisation of research along these five dimensions among leading European and US pharmaceutical multinational companies (MNCs). The evidence for the period 1975-1998 shows that the general process of international expansion of research activities varied significantly between leading US and European MNCs. It is also clear that the development of the process of globalisation has proceeded unevenly along the five dimensions studied. The data also show the increasing concentration of both US and European research investment in the USA.